Art has the ability to haunt, to stick in the memory and nourish the spirit.The ability of the artist to transmute paints into forms, shapes and feelings is a source of wonder. Equally fascinating is the interplay between art-forms -…
Celebrating 40 years of Chawkandi Art Gallery is a curatorial endeavor by art critic and curator Amra Ali, spanning two shows linked through a thematic of deep complexity. It opens up a comparative study between visual art, poetic texts, and…
The exhibition Manzar thrives on its transnational public sphere, engaging audiences across diverse languages and perspectives. Featuring an impressive curatorial team, the show explores Pakistan’s 75-plus-year history of art and architecture, grappling with deep-rooted questions of identity: What is Pakistani…
Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement, on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, elicited a wide spectrum of responses from the audience during its unveiling. While many praised the artwork for its grandeur, emotional depth, and masterful technique, it also sparked…
The South Asian perspective of womanhood is an almost clandestine lived experience that is challenging to narrate to those who have not witnessed it first-hand. Although unity can be found in the universal female struggle of women worldwide, the nuances…
People, cultures and ideas have constantly reshaped our understanding of the world. Their creative impulse, cultural and intellectual legacy remains inextricably tied to, and visible in our lived experiences, environments and even urban spaces. Cities may be seen as artificial…
Faceless, the mid-career retrospective of Khadim Ali’s work at the COMO Museum of Art feels like a much-awaited homecoming. Living and working between Sydney, Kabul and Quetta, Ali studied at the National College of Arts (NCA), graduating from the esteemed…
The works of Sumaira Tazeen are a visual soliloquy of her life, lived experiences and observations of the society she lives in, delivered in a garb of symbols and metaphors. Trained in the traditional South Asian art form of miniature,…
Being an artist is difficult. In South Asia, it can be discouraging due to poor state funding, perplexed parents, and opaque market prospects. Talented, committed artists have set examples in the past--- but women, especially from marginalized ethnic backgrounds, face…
Karachi’s Architectural Heritage is slowly disappearing. This includes many reasons, ranging from a lack of initiatives by the Sindh Government, a lack of knowledge or desire to conserve what remains, and collective amnesia. The response to buildings of historic character…